I'll Be There
by Rapunzel24
Summary: The war haunts Ginny with every nightmare, but Luna won't leave her alone at sea.


It starts with one nightmare.

Ginny stands amongst the ruins of Hogwarts. The castle is completely demolished, hills of rubble and glass shards littering the ground. The sky is grey with the same smoke that drifts around her and beneath her feet. Mountains ringed with white clouds rise in the far distance, and the lake glitters with sunlight; it feels wrong somehow, as if nature itself should have died along with the school.

She starts walking, stone crumbling and cracking beneath her feet. The toe of Ginny's shoe hits something hard with a loud _clank_ and she crouches over to check what made the noise. It looks like a half-melted goblet, charred and blackened with soot. Then Ginny recognizes the lump of gold- it is one of the Great Hall's drinking goblets. She glances around her, eyes wide. She is indeed standing right in the midst of the wreckage of the Great Hall. But it's barely recognizable- demolished, destroyed.

The smoke burns Ginny's eyes. A lump rises in her throat as she surveys the destruction around her. And then a scream jolts her from her misery, terrified. From the other end of the ruined hall, Ginny sees a figure running towards her. In a matter of moment she catches sight of the figure's tangle of blonde hair, of its familiar gait- the figure is Luna, growing closer by the second. Her eyes are wide with fear, her feet bare, and her grubby cheeks streaked with the tracks of tears that flow freely down her face. A few feet before she reaches Ginny, Luna's bare foot connects with a chunk of stone and she trips into the dusty rubble. The blonde girl thrashes on the ground, her feet seemingly trapped within a pile of rocks. Ginny reaches out to her, scared, but she is rooted to her spot. Luna is slowly swallowed by the debris until there is no hint of her ever been there.

For a few moments Ginny stands, frozen with shock, and then the ground rumbles. The wreckage of the castle shifts and shakes, sending plumes of dust everywhere. Luna's body rises back out of the rocks, but she is no longer struggling- her eyes are glassy, limbs limp and crushed, and a bleeding gash slices across her head. Blood trickles down her cheek. She stares into space, unmoving. And then Ginny notices the boulder lodged in Luna's chest.

Ginny stumbles backwards, head spinning, legs like overcooked spaghetti. She tries to scream but no sound comes out as more dead bodies erupt from the ground: Ron, Harry, Hermione, Fred and George, her parents…The ground keeps rumbling, endless victims of the battle rising to the surface as Ginny's stomach ties itself in knots. Then she feels something warm on her chest; a stain of blood is spreading across her school sweater, drenching her Gryffindor-striped tie, blotting the Hogwarts insignia until it is nothing but wet red. Its metallic scent makes her dizzy.

The castle jolts again, throwing Ginny to her knees. She can feel the blood dripping down her torso, dampening her skirt, pooling in the dust. She feels like she's drowning in it, wallowing in the pain of those who died instead of her. Whiteness flashes behind her eyelids.

And then she wakes up.

v

Ginny gasps for air, heart thudding like a bass drum, flailing and thrashing beneath her sweat-soaked sheets. Her limbs tangle in the bedspreads so violently her circulation gets cut off. Her damp hair sticks to her forehead in strands. Her hands are slick and clammy, scrabbling at the blankets and ripping them off of her body in an attempt to distance herself from the dream.

A moment of shock, as Ginny sinks back onto the bed and lets out a shaky breath.

The tears come after that. Soft at first, like dew on her cheeks, and then stronger and harder like a rainstorm. She tries to hold them back, but it feels like trying to stopper up a broken dam. She is simply flooding. Flooding all over the place, inside and out. Tears gush down her cheeks and through her veins. She doesn't know if she can ever stop.

She knows the dream isn't real, of course. Hogwarts is not destroyed, it's rebuilt, just as majestic and strong as ever; Ginny has been there recently. Her clothes are not drenched in blood. Luna is not dead or hurt, she is perfectly fine in the nearby room, and so are Hermione and Rona and Harry and Neville-

Ginny chokes back a sob. Her friends may be safe for the time being, but so many others weren't as fortunate. She remembers Lavender Brown from Gryffindor; and Tonks and Lupin; and Sirius; and Dumbledore; and little Colin Creevey; and her own brother Fred, with his jokes and wisecracks and how he teased her when she was little and cried because she wanted to go to Hogwarts with the rest of her siblings…

She's crying now, too. The broken dam has shattered completely, her strong-seeming façade evaporating. For the longest moments of her life, Ginny doesn't know why she is alive instead of her friends. She doesn't _want_ to be alive instead of her friends. And it hurts. It hurts more than anything else she has ever felt in her life, more than the agony of having Voldemort control her every move, more than the stabbing worry of being shoved aside during a war. This pain is an ache in her chest that feels as though her insides are being pounded to nothingness.

Ginny hunches over and lets the pain rip her apart.

v

"Ginny?"

Through a haze of tears Ginny sees a figure in the doorway- the same figure from the dream, with the same unkempt hair and the same skinny form. Like a ghost or an apparition.

"Luna." she murmurs.

As if drifting across the room, the girl by the doorway kneels before her and reaches towards Ginny's tear-streaked face.

"A nightmare?" she whispers, her voice all moonlight and shadows.

Ginny nods slightly.

Luna doesn't inquire further. Her hands reach over Ginny's cheeks, tucking a lock of damp hair behind Ginny's ear and smoothing it out of her eyes. Ginny leans into the touch of Luna's fingers, and Luna gently presses her eyelids shut.

"I find that rest always helps with the pain." She says softly.

"I can't sleep."

"Of course you can, I've seen you doze off standing up. Unless I was hallucinating?'

Ginny shakes her head. "I can't. Not now. Not after-"

Her voice breaks.

"I'll be here." Luna promises. "As long as you need me."

Ginny dwells on that promise, letting Luna's words settle over her softly and comfort her like a blanket draped over a sleeping child. She nods slowly and sprawls across the bed, head resting on the pillow. Her eyes are fixed on the ceiling, but she can hear Luna shuffle about as she discards her slippers and lays down beside her.

The bed is too small for the two of them. Luna's legs press against Ginny's, her arms tangled in Ginny's arms and her hair in Ginny's face. Luna giggles. They're so close, Ginny can feel the laughter thrum through Luna's body. Ginny likes it, flat on her back, watching the stars like pinpricks of light through the window.

Gradually Luna seems to fall asleep. Her breathing slows, every exhale a puff of air escaping her lips. She smells like honey, somehow, and the scent hangs in the room like perfume. Ginny likes that, too, and she likes the way Luna's fingers crook and brush against Ginny's palm. Everything about the closeness between them makes Ginny feel safer, calmer.

The stars keep twinkling in the night sky until Ginny falls asleep too, clasping Luna's hand as if it's the only thing tethering her to the world.


End file.
